Loose Ends

Stuart Maconie will be joined by comedian Karen Dunbar, star of sketch comedy show Chewin’ The Fat, ahead of her nationwide tour.

Restless Natives: The Musical is the new stage adaptation of the Scottish cult classic. Actor Kirsty MacLaren stars in the show which brings some of Big Country's greatest hits to life.

Rosco McClelland celebrates his recent win, having taken home the Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award at Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

World-record breaking adventurer Mollie Hughes became the youngest woman to climb both sides of Mount Everest, and the youngest woman to ski solo to the South Pole. Her latest book is called Breathe.

With music from NATI. and Lewis McLaughlin.

Presenter: Stuart Maconie

Joining Clive Anderson in the Loose Ends studio are the Emmy award-winning actor Billy Porter, currently hanging out in the Kit-Kat club where he is starring as Emcee. Comedian and 'Guilty Feminist' podcaster Deborah Frances White has just published a new book 'Six Conversations We're Scared to Have', about how to ask difficult questions and change minds - including our own.

Anna Chancellor stars in April De Angelis's 'Playhouse Creatures', about the first women of theatre at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London.

Music from Lapsley, one of the BBC Radio 1 Sound of... artists in 2025, she is about to release her fourth album 'I'm a Hurricane I'm a Woman in Love', the first on her own record label 'Her Own Recordings', and from poet and musician Anthony Joseph's new album 'Rowing Up River To Get Our Names Back'

Presenter: Clive Anderson

Loose Ends this week is all about finding the light. Poet, performer and broadcaster Michael Rosen is touring a one man show making sense of some of the darker moments of his life. Dylan Jones was the editor of era-defining magazines like i-D, Arena and British GQ in the 1990s and noughties. Now his memoir, These Foolish Things - tells how he left behind a difficult childhood to embrace a career that encompasses hobnobbing with celebrities from Elton John to Tracey Emin, taking phone calls from David Bowie and recommending a tailor to Gordon Brown. There's dark themes too to the Texan comedian Kemah Bob's new show Miss Fortunate which tells the story of a disastrous solo trip to Thailand. It was hailed as "chest-achingly funny" and "charismatic" by the critics and won her a Best Newcomer nomination at Edinburgh Festival Last year. The actress Barbara Flynn knows how to pick her projects, appearing in Cracker, Cranford and now the BBC's hit drama Beyond Paradise where cosy crime meets health concerns, heated relationships and family niggles.

Presented by Stuart Maconie

Clive Anderson's guests in Salford include Bridget Christie who returns with series two of The Change. Gardener's World expert Adam Frost who is on the road with his 'Lessons from the Garden' tour and up and coming stand up Louise Young. Music is from Richard Dawson who has just released a new album 'End of the Middle' and cellist and singer Abel Selaocoe performs from his new album 'Hymns of Bantu'

Presenter: Clive Anderson

Stuart Maconie and guests come together with mighty laughs, big stories, and altogether good craic from Lisburn, Northern Ireland.

After a year of accolades and success within the Irish music industry, Corkonian musician Chubby Cat performs a track from her latest EP THE FINE ART OF DISASSOCIATION accompanied on guitar by Ben Murray.

Clive hosts Loose Ends with an audience in London this week with a set of guests with a serious work ethic and willingness to try new things in the name of entertainment. The chart topping superstar and award winning actor Michael Ball is now also a best selling novelist. Can life backstage really be as chaotic as this page-turner set in theatreland suggests? Hollie McNish is that rare thing, a best-selling poet who also likes to make people laugh. Fresh from entertaining Swiss school children with her work, she'll be discussing her latest collection Lobster (and other things I'm learning to Love), the follow up to Slug (and other things I've been told to hate). And Dr Who and Ballet Shoes actress Pearl Mackie on her new venture - a true crime podcast called Theatre of Crime, investigating famous murder mysteries with a touch of audio drama. Comedian Pierre Novellie also co-hosts podcasts, alongside names like Frank Skinner and Phil Wang. But he's going it alone in a new show - Must We? - a sell out Edinburgh Festival hit that makes comedy out of Cargo Cults, neurodiversity and quirky obsessions.

Presented by Clive Anderson

Stuart Maconie is looking on the bright side this week with Dave Gorman who thinks that 'Modern Life is Goodish'. In the latest installment of his TV series, Dave Gorman is back with his trusty powerpoint as he falls down rabbit holes but always with a smile on his face -ish. And just to balance out all that positivity we've got natural worrier Angela Barnes whose new stand up tour is called 'Angst', a very funny catalogue of her failures.

And if you are anxiously watching the green shoots emerge awaiting the end of winter, nature writer Simon Barnes is the ideal guide with his new book 'Spring is the Only Season'

And there's music from the Hastings band HotWax who are just about to release their debut album Hot Shock and neo-soul vocalist Ni Maxine

Presenter: Stuart Maconie

Stuart Maconie is joined by the 41st best stand up ever to talk about his new tour 'Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf', and by Philippa Dunne who plays Anne in the school gates sitcom 'Motherland'. Anne is back in the spinoff series 'Amandaland', focusing on Anne's glamorous best friend Amanda. Aysha Kala tells us how she nailed the accent to play Saima in the new Bradford set crime thriller Virdee.

Music from song intrepeter Barb Jungr whose new album 'Hallelujah on Desolation Row' sees her back in the company of two songwriters whose music she has spent a lifetime alongside, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen as well as Irish singer and rapper Biig Piig who has just released her debut album '11:11'.

Presenter: Stuart Maconie

Jack Docherty has entertained audiences in eight series of BBC Scotland’s mockumentary police show Scot Squad, as Chief Commissioner Cameron Miekelson. He returns to our screens in new spin-off The Chief.

Writer Kirsty Logan has written on witches, mermaids, and motherhood. Her latest collection of dark tales of love and desire is No & Other Love Stories.

Comedian Larry Dean is bringing his acclaimed stand up show Dodger on tour. It explores identity, his grandmother's dementia diagnosis, and a love of Elvis Presley.

After big 40th anniversary celebrations last year, Pat and Greg Kane - AKA pop duo Hue and Cry - are set for a year of touring. They share a song fit for Valentine's Day weekend.

Cellist Su-a Lee performs a track from her solo album Dialogues which celebrates decades of folk music friendships. She's joined by composer and pianist James Ross.

Kevin Clifton entertained the nation for years on Strictly, now he can often be found treading the boards instead – and is currently starring in Chicago as it tours the country.

Poet and former Scots Makar Liz Lochhead talks about her collection of poems A Handsel ahead of her appearance at the Winter Words Festival in Pitlochry.

Coinneach MacLeod, best known as The Hebridean Baker, has found a global audience for his Scottish recipes. His latest release is The Hebridean Baker: The Scottish Cookbook.

Olivier Award-nominated Dawn Sievewright’s next project is Wild Rose, a stage musical adaptation of the 2018 film. She shares a track from the show ahead of it’s premiere in March.

Jazz/soul ensemble Mama Terra perform from their new album Chameleons: Live Interpretations of Herbie Hancock.